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Barton: Reasons to say 'good riddance' to 2012

Interim City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney gives her attention to Alderman Tony Thompson at a pre-council meeting at City Hall. (Steve Bisson/Savannah Morning News)

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Savannah City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney listens as Mayor Edna Jackson addresses City Council and the public during a special work session Wednesday afternoon at City Hall. The work session was called to discuss personnel issues, including the City Manager.

I don’t know about you. But I think it will be nice to see 2012 pop up in the rear view window.

Few events in the last 12 months will make Savannah’s all-time highlight reels.

While there were a few positive moments — October’s decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to approve Savannah’s $652 million harbor deepening project and the election of a new Chatham County district attorney, Meg Heap, in November — the year as a whole was a painful mess.

Disagree? Then let’s hit the rewind button, sit back and recall some of the agony.

Rochelle has left the building

When Savannah City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney delivered her resignation to Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson and City Council in early October, it ended an ugly spiral of events that was tearing apart city government and affecting the council’s ability to govern. That was the good part.

The bad parts, which consumed most of the year, were many — submitting questionable travel expenses, hiring a crony who lied on his resume, wrecking the city’s purchasing department and contributing to a plunge in morale among many of the city’s 2,500 employees. Much like a mother schooling a wayward child, the mayor tried to coach and rehabilitate Small-Toney. But the time and energy was largely wasted. Also squandered were many of the 18 months that Small-Toney had this job.

The lowest point occurred when a few rabble-rousers appeared in council chambers in a last-ditch effort to shame Jackson into keeping Small-Toney on the public payroll at $194,000 annually. Fortunately, they failed. Unfortunately, the public had to endure the spectacle of Jackson, who marched for civil rights here in the ’60s, being lectured by another black woman about how tough it was to be a black woman.

Small-Toney jumped out of City Hall with a $97,193 golden parachute — the equivalent of six months of pay. Pretty good work if you can get it.

Cry me a river

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is charged with protecting the state’s rivers and streams. Yet in 2012, the DNR opened the floodgates to help a chronic polluter, King America Finishing, continue to dump effluent from its textile plant into the Ogeechee River just upriver from Savannah.

In August, the state issued a pollution permit to the Chicago-based company, despite the fact that the company had been caught violating regulations for five years. The plant also was implicated in the death of more than 33,000 fish around Labor Day weekend 2011, the largest fish kill in Georgia’s history. In October, the DNR withdrew the permit it issued only two months earlier, but not because of a change of heart. Instead, it was an administrative move apparently designed to grease the skids later, as the state fends off legal challenges to the permit and to a ridiculously low $1 million penalty, which King no doubt happily agreed to pay the state as a part of a consent agreement reached behind closed doors in Atlanta. Gov. Nathan Deal, meanwhile, has reportedly gone fishing. But not in the Ogeechee.

Bridge to nowhere

How do you build a $22.5 million bridge that can’t be used? Simple.

Just contact the Georgia Department of Transportation and its general contractor on the Skidaway Island bridge project, United Contractors, and ask for the blueprints.

Georgia DOT Commissioner Keith Golden, a career employee with the DOT, is locked in a fierce struggle with its hired help when it was discovered some girders that were put into place didn’t meet design standards. That was back in August. Work on the bridge, which will serve thousands of vehicles daily, has since ground to a standstill.

Golden is fining the contractor $1,000 per day until the matter is resolved — a pathetically low amount that hasn’t forced an agreement. Meanwhile, some motorists feel they will be stuck with a new bridge fixed with the equivalent of duct tape and bailing wire. Where were the inspectors when this project was progressing from the design phase through the construction phase? Perhaps out fishing somewhere with Gov. Deal or Golden.

Lost with LOST

Every 10 years, elected officials who represent Savannah and Chatham County’s smaller municipalities meet with county commissioners to carve up a huge revenue pie — the extra 1 percent in Local Option Sales Tax revenue collected here. That’s in addition to the local sales tax collected for public schools and for special projects like the new jail. The amount is huge — $600 million over the next decade.

Elected officials began talking, sort of, in the summer. Now, they’re headed to court. There, it will be up to a judge to decide who gets what, a decision that will effect future delivery of public services and property taxes.

All the mayors and Commission Chairman-elect Al Scott could still strike a deal at the 11th hour. But those holding their breath are best advised to make funeral arrangements. Taxpayers should hold on to their wallets.

Fallen star

No one is irreplaceable. Even Otis Brock III. Yet there’s no question that the untimely death of the 41-year-old operations chief for Savannah-Chatham’s public schools in April was a tough blow for the school system. Brock was at the center of the district’s building and renovation boom. Superintendent Thomas Lockamy was grooming the well-liked Savannah native as a potential successor. Losing anyone of natural causes at this age is sad. But when you lose a rising star in an area that’s as critical as public education, it’s a tragedy.

Unhappy landings

The Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport is a gem when it comes to its facilities. But when it comes to low-cost carriers, it’s a dog.

For the umpteenth time, Savannah continued to be passed over by Jet Blue and Southwest, forcing travelers seeking cheap seats in this area to drive two hours south on I-95 to the Jacksonville airport. Maybe Delta will be ready — to lower its fares.

Accentuating the negative

In the end, it appeared that only two people, County Engineer Al Bungard and County Manager Russ Abolt, wanted to widen Johnny Mercer Boulevard through the heart of Wilmington Island. County Commission Chairman Pete Liakakis didn’t want it. Neither did Commissioner Pat Farrell, whose district includes the island. So why did county officials invest $332,000 in studies and other preliminary work on something most islanders apparently didn’t want? Perhaps there’s an answer in Mercer’s song lyrics to “Fools Rush In.”

Crime and punishment

It’s the usual tragic body count, made worse this year by the murders of two innocent people, 30-year-old Michael Biancosino and 21-year-old Emily Pickels, on Sept. 1. Biancosino was taking Pickels to her residence when they were killed, possibly in a case of mistaken identity.

Tybee trashed

Georgia’s most popular beach became its biggest seaside trash pile in April, thanks to cretins who attended the annual Orange Crush and refused to clean up after themselves. Too bad “Jaws” wasn’t about a land shark.

Animal house

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black flagged the county’s new, $2.5 million Animal Control shelter for several violations. Then its veterinarian quit. Complicating matters was politics — Diane Abolt, the wife of the county manager, runs an animal welfare group that uses the shelter. That caused some officials to roll over and play dead.

Check, please

Working people cut back when money gets tight. Not county commissioners. Just days before Christmas, they voted themselves a whopping 44 percent pay raise.

Vaya con Dios, 2012. And don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Tom Barton is the editorial page editor of the Savannah Morning News. tom.barton@savannahnow.com.